Neurological diseases often result in somatosensory deficits and motor impairment. Somatosensory deficits include impaired sensations of limb position and movement; cutaneous and deep mechanical pressure and vibration; muscular effort. Most current research and clinical efforts related to stroke rehabilitation focus on motor retraining despite recent literature suggesting that somatosensory retraining is a viable behavioral therapy for improving impaired motor functions.

General objectives and main activities

The thesis project aims at developing and testing a low-cost, wearable tactile stimulation system to train and enhance proprioception.
The project is inspired by the skin stretch technology, but the new system will be designed with the above-mentioned goal. The student will design the mechanical structure, will program the control system, and will test the device with a group of healthy subjects developing the experimental set-up and protocol.
If possible, preliminary data will be collected with chronic stoke survivors.